The Worm Ouroboros | Page 4

of the hall upon a
dais stood three high seats, the arms of each composed of two
hippogriffs wrought in gold, with wings spread, and the legs of the
seats the legs of the hippogriffs; but the body of each high seat was a
single jewel of monstrous size: the lefthand seat a black opal, asparkle
with steel-blue fire, the next a fire-opal, as it were a burning coal, the
third seat an alexandrite, purple like wine by night but deep sea-green
by day. Ten more pillars stood in semicircle behind the high seats,
bearing up above them and the dais a canopy of gold. The benches that
ran from end to end of the lofty chamber were of cedar, inlaid with
coral and ivory, and so were the tables that stood before the benches.
The floor of the chamber was tessellated, of marble and green
tourmaline, and on every square of tourmaline was carven the image of
a fish: as the dolphin, the conger, the cat-fish, the salmon, the tunny,
the squid, and other wonders of the deep. Hangings of tapestry were
behind the high seats, worked with flowers, snake's-head, snapdragon,
dragonmouth, and their kind; and on the dado below the windows were
sculptures of birds and beasts and creeping things.
But a great wonder of this chamber, and a marvel to behold, was how
the capital of every one of the four-and-twenty pillars was hewn from a
single precious stone, carved by the hand of some sculptor of long ago
into the living form of a monster: here was a harpy with screaming
mouth, so wondrously cut in ochre-tinted jade it was a marvel to hear
no scream from her: here in wine-yellow topaz a flying fire-drake: there
a cockatrice made of a single ruby: there a star sapphire the colour of
moonlight, cut for a cyclops, so that the rays of the star trembled from
his single eye: salamanders, mermaids, chimaeras, wild men o' the
woods, leviathans, all hewn from faultless gems, thrice the bulk of a

big man's body, velvet-dark sapphires, crystolite, beryl, amethyst, and
the yellow zircon that is like transparent gold.
To give light to the presence chamber were seven escarbuncles, great as
pumpkins, hung in order down the length of it, and nine fair
moonstones standing in order on silver pedestals between the pillars on
the dais. These jewels, drinking in the sunshine by day, gave it forth
during the hours of darkness in a radiance of pink light and a soft
effulgence as of moonbeams. And yet another marvel, the nether side
of the canopy over the high seats was encrusted with lapis lazuhi, and
in that feigned dome of heaven burned the twelve signs of the zodiac,
every star a diamond that shone with its own light.
Folk now began to be astir in the castle, and there came a score of
serving men into the presence chamber with brooms and brushes,
cloths and leathers, to sweep and garnish it, and burnish the gold and
jewels of the chamber. Lissome they were and sprightly of gait, of fresh
complexion and fair-haired. Horns grew on their heads. When their
tasks were accomplished they departed, and the presence began to fill
with guests. Ajoy it was to see such a shifting maze of velvets, furs,
curious needleworks and cloth of tissue, tiffanies, laces, ruffs, goodly
chains and carcanets of gold: such glitter of jewels and weapons: such
nodding of the plumes the Demons wore in their hair, half veiling the
horns that grew upon their heads. Some were sitting on the benches or
leaning on the polished tables, some walking forth and back upon the
shining floor. Here and there were women among them, women so fair
one had said: it is surely white-armed Helen this one; this, Arcadian
Atalanta; this, Phryne that stood to Praxiteles for Aphrodite's picture;
this, Thals, for whom great Alexander to pleasure her fantasy did burn
Persepolis like a candle; this, she that was rapt by the Dark God from
the flowering fields of Enna, to be Queen for ever among the dead that
be departed.
Now came a stir near the stately doorway, and Lessingham beheld a
Demon of burly frame and noble port, richly attired. His face was
ruddy and somewhat freckled, his forehead wide, his eyes calm and
blue like the sea. His beard, thick and tawny, was parted and brushed

back and upwards on either side.
"Tell me, my little martlet," said Lessingham, "is this Lord Juss?"
"This is not Lord Juss," answered the martlet, "nor aught so worshipful
as he. The lord thou seest is Volle, who dwelleth under Kartadza, by
the salt sea. A great sea-captain is he, and one that did service to the
cause of Demonland, and of the whole world besides,